Boys left behind at school while girls get trip

[Quickchat1]

Recently my sons class went on an educational trip to a local university. But only the girls. The boys were left behind with a cover teacher listening to music and generally doing very little. My son is GCSE year and would have benefited from a computing and science event. No it was only for the girls with no mention of anything for the boys. I understand this was a STEM event for girls only but if there was a STEM event for boys only there would be uproar! AIBU?

TheFairyCaravan that’s depressing. Our country badly needs more nurses, but it sounds like those teachers have thoroughly bought into the idea that ‘female-dominated = low status and embarrassing for males to be associated with’.

STEM undergrad here. I’m outnumbered 1:10 as well. I’m also in my 30s, and 1 of only 10 mature students accepted this year, with only 2 of us being women.

Why should she be discriminated against just because she has graduate parents who set up a uni fund shortly after she was born?

Seriously? This has to be ironic...

Mary112 so sorry Mary I misread your post and thought you disagreed! Haven’t had my morning coffee yet, absolutely agree with you that the playing field needs to be levelled in certain areas like this.

Whilst women in STEM events are a great idea, I do think we run a risk of alienating the upcoming generation of boys.

I know a very lovely, intelligent boy who is getting quite cross at the moment at the amount of stuff he is not allowed to go to, because he is male. The under-representation of women in STEM is not the current school children’s fault, all they see is their classmates being gay oven access to fun stuff that they don’t get. Whilst they may be able to understand it in theory, they’re getting quite cross in practice because they’re not being offered any of the fun stuff at the same time.

So send the girls on a women into STEM event, but make sure the boys get some sort of enjoyment that day too, and certainly don’t leave them twiddling their thumbs.

Stop being such a broflake!

I think jts a great idea

Sure boys would be interested but girls dont get the same chance with stem subjects. Given they spend large amounts of time baby sitting other students and sont get the same opportunities to really concentrate and learn.

Perhaps energy would be better spent asking the school to hold a boys only event on things like childcare , nursing, dance and drama etc

Every day is boys In stem taking the piss out of girls who show an interest day.

I can’t quite tell if this is a troll post or not...

Maybe if we had better provision for women in stem @wombat1a would understand the difference between an anecdote and data and why that difference is important.

YABVVVU.

YABVVVVU

FFS!

@PrawnofCreation Took the words out of my mouth!

@BouleBaker Perhaps explain to him why it’s good that underrepresented minorities are being given the experience and tell him to check his privilege?

If you think your son would benefit from attending a STEM event there is lots you can do to support this. Many universities run events that are open to all students (some do charge).

I paid and sent my son on a head start residential www.etrust.org.uk/headstart/whatisheadstart

If you are are lower income family or fall into vulnerable groups there are free courses.

My dd is the only girl in her computer science class and has been since options. So for her, in education not even employment, the ratio is 1:30 and will be for four years. This is from two different schools in two completely different geographical locations.

Imo they should be aiming at younger girls with special days out to encourage and inspire the future women in STEM. And I say this as a dm who also has two ds’s.

• it was small piece my son went on

www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk/

I got confused. If you google there are lots of opportunities for young people.

I work in Higher Education. We do numerous STEM events because the simple fact is that even in this day and age there are far more boys studying certain subjects than girls and we would like to even things up a bit. Its not an attempt to discriminate against males, its about getting the playing field a bit more level

Whenever there is an event or institution based on sex or race, ask this simple question: is it aimed at addressing a deep-seated and unjustified social inequality or at reinforcing it?

All male golf clubs: reinforcing inequality
All female colleges at Oxbridge: challenging inequality

Of course it gets more complicated if we take intersectionality into account (should an upper middle class white girl have priority at an introduction to university event over a black working class boy? Almost certainly not.)

My own DD has been invited to an Oxbridge event because she attends a comp in a fairly deprived area; however, I went to Cambridge and my other DC is currently there. I have pointed out that this event really isn't aimed at students like my DD who has 2 generations of parents and grandparents who are all graduates (and half of them Oxbridge).

But STEM events for women and girls - overall a good thing I would say.

I'm conflicted on this. I'm fully behind getting girls into STEM (and am a woman who works in a STEM field myself). But I also have two boys, and find that while the girls are getting encouragement to do STEM, there's nothing to encourage the boys to do traditionally female professions.

What happens when the girls make the decision not to be a nurse but become an engineer? A) Everyone will be competing for the same jobs, but B) No-one will want to take a nursing degree and become a nurse (a very fine profession that I'd be very happy for my boys to do!)

Not saying anything about nursing or engineering here, it could be programmers v primary school teachers or whatever, I'm just saying that if you want to encourage movement in one direction of the labour market, it would help for there to be movement in another to compensate. It would also really help if nursing and engineering were paid equally!

Of course it gets more complicated if we take intersectionality into account (should an upper middle class white girl have priority at an introduction to university event over a black working class boy?Almost certainly not.)

I think this is the crux for me. If the school traditionally has lots of boys going on to study STEM subjects at uni then a day encouraging girls is great (but they should also have a day encouraging boys to consider traditionally female dominated careers). However if the school has few students going to uni due to its socio economic profile then what are they doing to address this for all students?

Without knowing the background to the school it is quite hard to judge if this was unfair. The fact that the boys were left with no work or proper provision isn't right though.

Is this a precursor to the usual International Women's Day narkiness?

I often get upset about this. My son is interested in sciences and we run a rather hectic programme for teenagers. There is a big push to get girls into science, hence why they are invited to so many events and the boys are left behind. I understand the rationale but we are still discriminating by gender.

My personal hate are schools that select a tiny handful of teenagers to send to every single science event even ignoring those that have progressed and are doing better than the initially selected few. If your kid doesn't do well in the first year he can be ignored for these programmes until he finishes year 13. Which is a pity as universities are spending so much money and resources in getting to schools to motivate children just to have the same handful of students, who are already excelling in science, been sent repeatedly to similar events while others who could benefit more are ignored.

DH works in engineering. There are a couple of females within the engineering side, the rest are admin staff.

Inadequate cover is a fair concern.

Using that time to support boys with male minority activities would be a fair thing to do too.

Seriously? Can you reallynot see why they have Gil only events in areas where females are underrepresented?